Gold Prospecting

Gold prospecting is possible since gold is heavy. It is twice as heavy as lead, and ninteen times as heavy as water. Gold is often associated with black sand and quartz. Devices used for retrieving gold are pans, sluices, highbankers, dredges, poop tubes, dry runners, etc.

A pan is the most primitive way of gold prospecting. One pours concentrates into the pan, and puts water into it. The pan needs to be soupy with water. Move the pan vigorously in a counter clockwise direction in a circle. This will move the heavy gold to the bottom and the lighter worthless materials to the top. Then the pan is tipped to allow the lighter material to escape. Continue this process until it's worked down to black sand and maybe a few other things.

A sluice is the second most primitive. One must find a body of water that has a current, or have a way to pump water there. Place the concentrates on the front of the sluice and the current will take the lighter material off the sluice. The heavier gold will get caught within the sluice. Then the material in the sluice must be panned. This allows more material to be processed at a time.

A highbanker works pretty much the same way a sluice does. A highbanker though one can use anywhere as long as the water is shallow enough. One takes an engine to create a flow of water through tubes. Then one takes concentrates and dumps them into an area in which they fall through and the sluice part works. The sluice part is put at about a 35 degree angle so that the lighter stuff goes back into the water.

A dredge is completely different. It has a motor connected to a "sluice" that floats on pontoons. A hose is connected to the mail area. A person sucks up concentrates with the one end of the hose and the material goes through and the sluice affect takes place. The concentrates then must be panned once the operation is done.

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